Business management system and method for a deregulated electric power market

ABSTRACT

A business management method with interaction between an electrical energy supplier and a plurality of customer energy consumers includes the consumers providing respective electricity load profiles to the energy supplier. The method also includes the energy supplier aggregating the respective projected electricity load profiles. The method further includes the energy supplier making decisions based on the respective projected electricity load profiles on any of the consumers bidding on additional power, offering excess power on energy exchanges, and offering specials discounts to favored consumers. The method is likewise applicable to other commodities such as a water supply, fuel gas supply, or the like.

Reference is hereby made to copending Provisional Application No.60/290,168 filed May 10, 2001, entitled INTEGRATED ENERGY E-BUSINESSSERVICES in the name of Spool et al., and of which priority is claimedand whereof the disclosure is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Reference is made to the following patent applications by the sameinventors as the present application and being filed on the same date asthe present application and whereof the disclosure is herebyincorporated herein by reference:

-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET USING COOPERATIVELY PRODUCED ESTIMATES;-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET USING SUPPLIERS' SPECIAL OFFERS;-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET USING CONSUMER SELECTED SPECIAL OFFERS;-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET IN A SHORTAGE SITUATION;-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET USING CONSUMER SITE ANOMALY DETECTION;-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET USING ONLINE DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES;-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET USING CUSTOMER CIRCLES AGGREGATION;-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET WITH SHARING OF SUPPLY CHAIN DATA; and-   BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A DEREGULATED ELECTRIC    POWER MARKET USING WORKSPACE PORTALS.

The present invention relates to management systems utilizing electricalcommunications and information exchange for optimizing a businessoperation and, more particularly, to business management systems foroptimizing operations in a deregulated electrical power and energymarket, utilizing electronic information exchange, optionally includingcommunications on the Internet, World Wide Web, e-Business networks,intranets, wireless nets, local area networks, and similar facilities.

In a deregulated electric energy market, many electric utility companiesthat previously included an integrated range of capabilities, includingelectric power generation, transmission, and distribution, haveseparated and are expected in the future to separate these capabilitiesinto different companies: electric power generation companies (GenCos),electric power transmission companies (TransCos), electric powerdistribution companies (DisCos). Additional roles have come to exist asa result of the buying and selling of electric power and transmissioncapacity. Such additional roles may (remove “may”) include electricpower exchanges where the energy trading takes place at the wholesalelevel, Independent Systems Operators (ISOs) that manage the trading intransmission capacity, and resellers that buy electric power and thenresell it to others, some of which are electric power consumers.Additionally, once electric power has been purchased, space or capacityfor its transmission must be reserved from the ISOs or owners ofelectric power transmission lines. DisCos may also be resellers, orresellers that are not DisCos may pay a DisCo for the right to deliverelectric power over lines owned by the DisCos.

It will also be understood that the term “electricity” as hereinafterused, generally encompasses the terms electrical energy and/or electricpower, as will be apparent from the context. Electrical consumers willtypically pay separate charges for the electric power itself, thetransmission of the electricity from where it is generated to the localgeographical area where it is to be consumed, and the distribution ofthe electricity to its final consumption point. Money flow in thederegulated market would look like something like the chart shown inFIG. 1, in which the abbreviations used are as defined above.

Due to the retiring of old generation capacity, uncertainties concerningderegulation, and other factors, certain forecasts predict insufficientelectric power generation capacity to meet peak demands for some time tocome. Likewise, electric power transmission capacity is forecast to beinsufficient to meet peak demands for the foreseeable future due touncertainties concerning deregulation and the lack of rights-of-way inmany regions for additional transmission capacity to be built.Particularly on especially hot days in summer when air-conditioningpower demands are high, insufficient local power generation capacity andcongestion on power transmission lines to other regions typicallyresults in demand exceeding the available supply. As a result of suchconditions, the cost of electric power and the cost of transmissioncapacity have reached peak prices two orders of magnitude higher thantheir average prices. For example, during early July 1998, prices wentfrom less than $50 per Megawatt-Hour (MWh) to over $7,000 per MWh.Several energy service companies (ESCos) went bankrupt trying to buyelectricity to meet their electric power contracts. Effective riskmanagement has taken on new importance as a result.

Deregulation offers great opportunity in the energy market for bothsuppliers and customers, but it is herein recognized that:

-   C&I (Commercial and Industrial) energy customers cannot easily take    advantage of short-term price fluctuations-   Energy customers cannot easily respond to restrictions on or    shortages in energy supply-   ESCOs' ability to shut down or control customers' equipment is not    appealing to most energy customers.-   Energy Customers cannot respond quickly to adapt their energy demand    optimally in the presence of voluntary (with price advantages) or    involuntary curtailments-   ESCOs assume huge financial risks due to price fluctuations and    inability to control energy demands.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement method with interaction between an electrical energy supplierand a plurality of customer energy consumers, wherein the methodcomprises the steps of the consumers providing respective electricityload profiles to the energy supplier; the energy supplier aggregatingthe respective projected electricity load profiles; and the energysupplier making decisions based on the respective projected electricityload profiles on any of: bidding on additional power, offering excesspower on energy exchanges, and offering specials discounts to favoredconsumers.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement method includes a step of the energy supplier monitoringelectric power consumption meter data.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement method includes a step of the energy supplier utilizing datafrom the monitoring for modifying the respective projected electricityload profiles.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement method includes a step, upon a finding of significantmodifying of the profiles, of sharing information on the significantmodifying of the profiles between any of the electrical energy supplierand the plurality of customer energy consumers.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement method includes a step, upon a finding of significantmodifying of the profiles, of sharing information on the significantmodifying of the profiles with third parties.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement system with interaction between an electrical energy supplierand a plurality of customer energy consumers having respectiveelectrical load units which consume electrical power, wherein the systemcomprises: a Web site operated by the electrical energy supplier forproviding information to customers about daily courses offered for themorrow through a customer portal site; Web browser apparatus availableto respective ones of the customer energy consumers for accessing thecustomer portal site; computer apparatus for generating a set of lowestcost schedules for one or more of the daily courses, taking intoconsideration historical electricity use data by each of the electricalload units, inventory information, and a list of the customer energyconsumers' pending orders; and apparatus for comparing the schedules andpresenting information thereon on the Web browser to an operator forenabling a judgment based selection of a desirable schedule.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement system with interaction between an electrical energy supplierand a plurality of customer energy consumers having respectiveelectrical load units which consume electrical power while in aproductive mode of operation and whereof a subset requires maintenancewith varying degrees of urgency, comprises: a Web site operated by theelectrical energy supplier for providing information to customers aboutdaily courses offered for the morrow through a customer portal site; Webbrowser apparatus available to respective ones of the customer energyconsumers for accessing the customer portal site; computer apparatus forgenerating a set of lowest cost schedules for one or more of the dailycourses, taking into consideration historical electricity use data byeach of the electrical load units, inventory information, and a list ofthe customer energy consumers' pending orders; and apparatus forcomparing the schedules and presenting information thereon on the Webbrowser to an operator for enabling a judgment based selection of adesirable schedule and, in the event that a low cost power is availablefrom the electrical energy supplier, selectively postponing maintenancesubject to the degree of urgency so as to allow ones of the electricalload units to operate in the productive mode of operation while the lowcost power continues to be available.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement method with interaction between a utility supplier whereinthe utility is one of electric, water, and fuel gas supply, and aplurality of customer utility consumers, comprises the steps of: theconsumers providing respective utility usage load profiles to theutility supplier; the utility supplier aggregating the respectiveprojected utility usage profiles; and the utility supplier makingdecisions based on the respective projected utility usage profiles onany of: bidding on additional quantities, offering excess quantities onquantity exchanges, and offering specials discounts to favoredconsumers.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement system with interaction between a utility supplier, theutility comprising any of electricity, water supply, and fuel gas, and aplurality of customer utility usage consumers having respective utilityusage load units which consume from the utility while in a productivemode of operation and whereof a subset requires maintenance with varyingdegrees of urgency, comprises: a Web site operated by the utilitysupplier for providing information to customers about daily coursesoffered for the morrow through a customer portal site; Web browserapparatus available to respective ones of the customer utility consumersfor accessing the customer portal site; computer apparatus forgenerating a set of lowest cost schedules for one or more of the dailycourses, taking into consideration historical utility usage data by eachof the utility usage load units, inventory information, and a list ofthe customer utility usage consumers' pending orders; and apparatus forcomparing the schedules and presenting information thereon on the Webbrowser to an operator for enabling a judgment based selection of adesirable schedule and, in the event that a low cost for the utility isavailable from the utility supplier, selectively postponing maintenancesubject to the degree of urgency so as to allow ones of the utilityusage load units to operate in the productive mode of operation whilethe low cost for the utility continues to be available.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a businessmanagement method with interaction between an electrical energy supplierand a plurality of customer energy consumers comprises the steps of: theconsumers providing respective electricity load profiles to the energysupplier; the energy supplier aggregating the respective projectedelectricity load profiles; and the energy supplier making decisionsbased on the respective projected electricity load profiles on any ofbidding on additional power, offering excess power on energy exchanges,and offering specials discounts to favored consumers. The method islikewise applicable to other commodities such as a water supply, fuelgas supply, or the like.

The invention will be more fully understood from the following detaileddescription of preferred embodiments, in conjunction with the Drawing,in which various figures provide information helpful to an understandingof the invention and illustrate embodiments in accordance with theprinciples of the invention, as follows:

FIG. 1 shows an example of money flow in a deregulated market;

FIG. 2 shows flow as will be described in detail in the specification.

FIG. 3 shows an overview UML Use Case diagram for power consumers,including three different cases and the major roles participating inthem;

FIG. 4 shows a message sequence diagram for a general case;

FIG. 5 shows a data flow diagram for a Finite Capacity Scheduler;

FIGS. 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 55, 56, 57, and 58 show variousmessage sequence charts for additional cases for power consumers andpower suppliers;

FIG. 9 shows an abstract Gantt Chart representation of current Scheduleitems and a Proposed Revised Schedule;

FIG. 10 shows a supplier view use case diagram, similar to the consumerview shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 15 shows a use case diagram of the Special Services View, includinga number of examples of special services and the major rolesparticipating in providing them;

FIG. 18 shows information sharing across an energy supply chain;

FIG. 19 shows a possible pattern for ad-hoc information flow;

FIG. 20 shows an example of a Role-Based Portal Concept;

FIG. 21 shows, by way of example, a Role-Based Portal;

FIG. 22 shows an example for sharing data and messages;

FIG. 23 indicates additional needs of role-players not being met now;

FIG. 24 shows examples of data sources that could be used to estimateenergy use;

FIG. 25 shows some of the data sources, some of the information derivedby integrating them, and some of the roles using that information;

FIG. 26 shows an example of a summary view of a layered informationintegration architecture;

FIG. 27 shows an example of load history and forecast informationtrading;

FIG. 28 shows an example of Load Estimation based on data from manyCustomer Circles;

FIG. 29 shows another example of Customer Circle Based Aggregate LoadEstimation using both historical and near term meter data;

FIG. 30 shows FIG. 30 shows Customer Circle Based Aggregate LoadEstimation using both historical and near term meter data, and nearfuture load profile estimates;

FIG. 31 shows an example of what an ESCo staff member might see on theircomputer screen to indicate a situation where there is a greater energysupply than needed;

FIG. 32 shows an example of a possible resulting action: offering aspecial tariff to a particular customer belonging to one of the customercircles;

FIG. 33 shows a production engineer at the energy-consuming customerlearning of a special tariff offer from the ESCo;

FIG. 34 shows what a production engineer might see on their computerscreen after trying to adjust the production schedule to take advantageof the special energy offer;

FIG. 35 shows what a Production Engineer might see on their computerscreen while comparing proposed schedule alternatives;

FIG. 36 shows what a Maintenance Engineer might see on their computerscreen when they receive a request to defer a maintenance task;

FIG. 37 shows what a Production Engineer might see on their computerscreen when receiving a response from the Maintenance Engineer;

FIG. 38 shows what a Sales Department staff member might see on theircomputer screen when they receive a request to deliver orders early;

FIG. 39 shows what a Production Engineer might see on their computerscreen when receiving a response from the Sales Department staff member;

FIG. 40 shows what a staff member at the ESCo might see on theircomputer screen when receiving a response from their customer acceptingtheir special tariff offer;

FIG. 41 shows what a Production Engineer might see on their computerscreen when receiving a confirmation response from their ESCo;

FIG. 42 shows what a staff member at the ESCo might see on theircomputer screen when receiving a message from their GenCo indicating theneed to shed load

FIG. 43 shows what a Production Engineer at the energy-consumingcustomer might see on their computer screen when receiving notificationfrom their ESCo of the need to shed load;

FIG. 44 shows what a Sales Department staff member might see on theircomputer screen when they receive a request to delay order delivery;

FIG. 45 shows what the Production Engineer might see on their computerscreen when receiving a response from the Sales Department staff member;

FIG. 46 shows what a Maintenance Engineer might see on their computerscreen when they receive a request to reschedule a maintenance task;

FIG. 47 shows what the Production Engineer might see on their computerscreen when receiving a response from the Maintenance Engineer;

FIG. 48 shows what a staff member at the ESCo might see on theircomputer screen when preparing to send a response to their GenCo to tellthem that they will be able to comply with the load shed request;

FIG. 49 shows an example of an expense that could easily be tracked byenergy consumers using information integration techniques;

FIG. 50 shows an example of what a staff member might see on theircomputer screen while using variance information to determine a betterestimate of the level of uncertainty in their load estimate; thisinformation would be used to decide how much to adjust the maximumamount of power allowed by contract with their ESCo—resulting in reducedenergy costs for that energy consumer;

FIG. 51 shows an example of an expense that could easily be tracked byESCos using information integration techniques. In this exampleunderestimation has incurred frequent penalties;

FIG. 52 shows an example of what an ESCo staff member might see on theircomputer screen indicating recomputed error bounds that would reducerisk;

FIG. 53 shows a high level view of the inputs to and outputs from theCustomer Circle Manager Software.

FIG. 54 shows what an ESCo Supply Management staff member might see ontheir computer screen indicating automated advice about projected energysurpluses and shortages during near-term time periods;

FIG. 55 shows a Message Sequence Chart (MSC) for an Automated EnergyTrading Scenario;

FIG. 56 shows a Message Sequence Chart for Customer Load Estimation byEnergy Suppliers to reduce risk;

FIG. 57 shows a Message Sequence Chart showing an online diagnosticservices scenario; and

FIG. 58 is a Message Sequence Chart showing monitoring for anomalies,with anomaly diagnosis and customer notification.

For an enterprise-level energy customer to take advantage of short-termpricing, it is herein recognized that it must be able to reliablypredict and control its total short-term energy demand while stayingproductive. Furthermore, this must be done economically, withoutdedicating too much money or manpower. Under current technology, thistask is too uncertain, complex, and labor-intensive to be practical.

On the energy supplier side, Discos (energy Distribution Companies) andESCOs (Energy Service Companies) are currently assuming huge risks bybuying energy in an open market but selling into inelastic demand. Thisis believed to have resulted in the $7000/mWh prices in the Midwestduring June 1998 (whereas $30/mWh is “normal”), as stated above, whichbankrupted several companies. This risk has probably slowed downadoption of electric utility deregulation in the United States. The riskto suppliers is a great barrier to the success of deregulation. Discosand ESCOs are already looking for ways to control demand throughcustomer contracts. Supply restrictions from Discos/ESCOs have beentried, but they are not commercially appealing to most enterprises,because they remove some of the enterprise's control over its ownoperations and place it in the hands of the energy supplier.

It is herein recognized that a key to making the deregulated energymarket work smoothly is to solve both problems, in a way that isappealing to both energy customers and suppliers.

In considering objects of the present invention in providing solutionsto such problems, it is noted that since a shortfall in the amount ofelectric power generation and transmission capacity is predicted toexist for the foreseeable future, it is herein recognized that animportant option available to keep demand from causing electric powercosts to become unstable is to manage that demand more efficiently.Energy load management at the electricity consumer level is expected tobecome an important solution method. There appear to be few alternativeapproaches, one of which is to install electric power generation plantsnear consumers. It is herein recognized that a combination of these twoapproaches is also possible.

TransCos and DisCos generally remain regulated entities even underelectric power deregulation. GenCos, ESCos, and other electric powerresellers are the deregulated entities that would benefit from riskreduction practices. They could reduce their risk through more frequentavailability of actual electric power use data in the form of meterreadings, and more accurate forecasts of future electric power use.

Another object of the present invention is to enable and support closecoordination between energy suppliers and customers through informationsharing and integration:

-   -   Enable energy customers to easily optimize their total operating        costs, including rapidly fluctuating costs of energy.    -   Improve the ability of energy suppliers and customers to        optimize their operations in the presence of fluctuating price        and supply of energy.    -   Allow energy costs to be optimized across the entire energy        supply chain.

It is herein recognized that a better economic model for the entiresystem is one in which the energy demand of enterprises is elastic. Ifan enterprise has elastic demand, it can take advantage of rapidlychanging energy prices by flexibly adjusting its energy consumption. Abusiness that can do this can run more profitably than one withinelastic demand, all other things being equal. If enterprise-levelelastic demand becomes common in a deregulated market, most enterpriseswill eventually need to have it, in order to stay competitive.

An object of the present invention is generally to provide solutions toenterprises that make use of innovative integration of information.Another object is to provide information when it is needed, where it isneeded, and in the format in which it will be most useful to guideimportant decision making. The present inventors have coined the term“Information at Your Fingertips” for this approach.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention with regard to the domainof electric power, it is proposed to integrate actual electric meterusage data with production schedules. This information can be used bothby electric power consumers to forecast future electric power needs moreaccurately and by energy providers to more accurately forecast theirpower needs to fulfill existing contractual obligations. Thisinformation is a valuable input to decision making which can reducecosts, increase profits, and reduce risk.

To simplify the scheduling process, production scheduling in the pastassumed that each machine and person had infinite capacity. Theconstraint limiting what was possible to be produced was considered tobe the quantity of parts and materials available. This approach fit wellwith the material requirements planning (MRP) tools used at that time bylong range corporate planners. Schedulers, in effect, tried to developthe best schedule fitting the available material budget.

At the present time, a more sophisticated scheduler generally no longerassumes infinite resource capacity. These finite capacity schedulers useavailable resource capacity in addition to available materials toconstrain production capacity. The resulting schedules must satisfy theresource capacity budget.

In the era of electricity de-regulation, an additional energy budgetconstraint may in the future become desirable in schedulers used inenergy-intensive industries. This is an additional constraint thatproduction schedules must meet because it can result in cost savings. Itis herein recognized that an energy budget can be enforced by a powermanagement system.

Given a load profile and a production profile, it is herein recognizedthat one can find the answers to a number of important questions thatplant production managers are apt to want to ask, such as:

-   Given an order queue Q for a future time period, how much electric    energy will be required?-   Given Q and a guaranteed amount of electricity to be supplied, that    is, a firm reservation, is any schedule S feasible?-   Given Q and a firm reservation for a given amount of electric    energy, optimize S to maximize the absolute profit of executing Q.    (In a flow process, maximize the average absolute profit.)

Given S and an unfirm reservation for electric energy, with a possiblerange of electricity to be supplied between MIN and MAX, produce a setof schedules S′, each of which most efficiently uses a specific quantityof electric energy (between MIN and MAX in evenly-spaced steps.)

Given a set of equipment M that is scheduled for maintenance during afuture time period, can we safely defer maintenance of some subset m inthe event that our energy supplier has offered a special price reductionin the cost of electricity for that future time period? This computationshould weigh the cost of the risk involved against the projectedelectricity cost savings. If we cannot safely do so, it may be possibleto move maintenance to an earlier time period.

Note that, for scheduling purposes, a maintenance task on M can beconsidered to be simply an internally-generated order (or set of orders)which is constrained to use the equipment of M as a resource. Such anorder can be placed in Q and scheduled. Given advance warning of a powerreduction, determine a set of equipment M upon which maintenance shouldbe performed, such that cost impact is minimized?

Aspects of the present invention can be explained by way of illustrativeexamples or scenarios. Thus, real-world events in the energy supplychain can be modeled through the use of several fictitiousorganizations: a fictitious high-volume energy consumer in the businessof plastics, hereinafter called XYZ Company and a fictitious powersupplier hereinafter called ABC Power. No name similarity or othersimilarity is intended to any existing entities. A further set offictitious illustrative scenarios covering various situations andapproaches to problem solution and optimization of resources presentedbelow, these being helpful to gaining a more thorough understanding ofvarious aspects of the invention.

We next consider a consumer's perspective.

1. In the present illustrative example, the fictitious XYZ Company is ahigh-volume electric power customer in Texas. By way of further example,it uses a fictitiously named entity ABC Power as a power supplier.

2. In the present illustrative example, XYZ Customer belongs to ABCPower's customer circle of, for example, Texas plastic productmanufacturers. Members of this customer circle receive special rates andservices in return for providing reliable data about their projecteddemand for the next few days. An example of customer circles is providedby Amazon.com.

3. In the present illustrative example, overnight, XYZ Company and ABCPower have automatically negotiated several daily courses for the nextfew days. They have exchanged several RFP and proposal documents in XML.

In the present illustrative example, the negotiation process uses theEnergy Trading Advisor. The two sides have different, but compatible,goals in this negotiation. The goal of XYZ Company is to minimize thecost of fulfilling their outstanding contracts for the next few days.ABC Power has the goal of maximizing the profit of its power sales,without exceeding its available electricity supply.

4. In the present illustrative example, Chief Engineer, the chiefengineer of XYZ Company uses, as he does every morning, a Web browser tolog into the customer portal site of ABC Power. He downloads the dailycourses that ABC Power is offering for tomorrow.

5. Historical electricity use by each machine, plus machine capacities,inventory information, and a list of pending orders are used to generatea set of the lowest cost schedules for one or more of the daily courses.For the purposes of the present example, it is herein assumed that eachmachine that consumes a significant amount of electricity is meteredseparately or, for example, that its energy consumption can be estimatedstatistically. In the present illustrative example, any schedule can bedisplayed in a Web Browser along with graphs of its projectedelectricity usage, cost, and any limits on peak power use. Afterconsulting with the production managers about these alternativeproduction schedules, Chief Engineer of XYZ Company selects the proposedproduction schedule that he thinks will be best.

Rather than allowing the daily course negotiation to be concludedautomatically, chief engineer of XYZ Company wisely insists on havingthe final judgment. In the present illustrative example, this morning heselects the lowest-cost schedule, even though it uses a daily courseinvolving an unfirm power reservation. In doing this, he may impact thecompletion of urgent orders for important customers. However, he judgesthe chance of substantial load shedding to be small, and hence maycomfortably accept an unfirm reservation. In fact, the cost of power isso low, that the chief engineer of XYZ Company attempts to findscheduled maintenance operations that could safely be deferred untilsome later date in the near future. By doing so, he could increase theavailable capacity for production using the very low cost power beingoffered by ABC Power for the following day. After communicating hisdesires electronically to the Maintenance Supervisor at XYZ Company,they agree upon a number of maintenance operations that can safely bedeferred, thus providing extra production capacity.

Before agreeing to this desirable daily course, the chief engineer ofXYZ Company checks with his sales department in the present illustrativeexample, to see if he can profit from this extra production capacity. Hediscovers, for example, that one of XYZ Company's good customers wouldbe very happy to take delivery of an order a day early at lower cost.XYZ Customer would be willing to pass part of its savings on to thisgood customer.

Still using his Web browser, Chief Engineer of XYZ Company makes areservation with ABC Power for the daily course he has chosen, and alsosupplies a projected electricity load profile to them.

ABC Power accepts the negotiated daily course chosen by Chief Engineerof XYZ Company.

The data flow in items 4 and 5 above are depicted in FIG. 2

-   1. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention, ABC    Power aggregates projected electricity load profiles received from    its customers to help determine its likely electric power needs.    This information is used to reduce risk, reduce waste and hence    lower costs, and increase profits. Based on current contracts,    decisions are made about bidding on additional power, offering    excess power on energy exchanges, load shedding, or offering    specials to favored consumers.-   Increasing the frequency of sampling and communication of electric    power meter data affords a more detailed and timely knowledge of    current power usage, which confers a competitive advantage. Watching    trends developing can improve decision making and reduce risks. If    significant changes to projected power load profiles resulting from    production schedule changes could also be promptly communicated to    power suppliers such as ABC Power in this exemplary embodiment of    the present invention, that would confer an even greater competitive    advantage, thereby reducing risk even more.-   2. ABC Power, in this exemplary embodiment of the present invention,    sells not only electricity, but also information. In accordance with    an exemplary embodiment of the invention, fifteen minutes later (on    the quarter-hour mark), for example, ABC Power supplies revised    consumption schedule estimates as XML documents to its information    customers. These estimates include aggregate data for all customers    in ABC Power's plastics-manufacturing customer circle, but do not    identify XYZ Customer specifically. Furthermore, if it is so    desired, ABC Power can supply information aggregated over all ABC    Power's customers to power producers.-   ABC Power's information customers in this exemplary embodiment of    the present invention, are organizations that need reliable    estimates of near-term regional power consumption. These include,    for example, DisCos, as well as power providers such as GenCos and    IPPs (Independent Power Producers).-   3. One of ABC Power's information customers in this exemplary    embodiment of the present invention, is Cajun Power in Louisiana.    They use ABC Power's customer circle data to refine their own    estimates of expected demand in the next few days. Using this    information, they could plan how much generation capacity to place    online and how much to keep in reserve.-   4. Analysis of electricity load profiles can identify long term    patterns that can be the basis for creation of new energy products    designed even for small select groups of industrial consumers. This    can result in new customer circles that ABC Power chooses to create    and serve.

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention, FIG. 3shows an overview UML Use Case diagram showing the participants involvedin picking a daily course, and indicating that there are severalalternative case choices for picking a daily course.

The actors' views in the scenario of FIG. 3 include Consumer SalesPerson, Consumer Enterprise Integrated Info Server, Consumer ProductionEngineer, Consumer Maintenance Engineer, and Electricity Supplier. Thecourses include Course CASE 1: No schedule changes, Course CASE 2: LowRates/Change Schedule, and Course CASE 3: Load Shedding.

The consumer enterprise integrated information server is a repository ofvarious enterprise information accessible via web browsers. Alsoaccessible on this server are an integrated collection of softwareobjects for analyzing enterprise information in order to improve thedecision making capabilities of employees throughout the enterprise.Although this server is not a person, it is still an actor because itinteracts with humans and other entities.

FIG. 4 shows a message sequence diagram for the general Pick DailyCourse case in the Consumer View diagram above (it is the oval at whichall the arrows point ), in accordance with an aspect of the invention.

In the scenario shown in FIG. 4, a production engineer, for example,working for an industrial electric power consumer such as XYZ Company inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention, uses aproduction scheduling software package which receives information abouta set of orders, capacities of resources such as machines and people,and available inventory levels as inputs. It outputs a proposedproduction schedule S for tomorrow. This schedule is sent to anenterprise-wide integrated information web server maintained for the useof the industrial power consumer.

In this scenario for Pick Best Daily Course, interactions shown betweenConsumer Scheduling Software and Consumer Production Engineer includeSend Capacities, Inventory Orders, Request Schedule; and Schedule SReturned.

Interactions shown between Consumer Production Engineer and ConsumerEnterprise Integrated Information Web Server include Proposed Schedule Sfor Tomorrow; Request Daily course Specials; For Each Daily CourseSpecial d in D: Send d and Schedule S; Request Energy Cost andExceptions; and For Each of the D: Return Cost C and Set of OrdersAffected, if any.

Select Best Daily Course Special B is internal to Consumer ProductionEngineer. Interactions shown between Electricity Supplier and ConsumerEnterprise Integrated Information Web Server include Set D of DailyCourse Specials.

Interactions shown between Electricity Supplier and Consumer ProductionEngineer include Set D of Daily Course Specials; Reserve B; and confirm.

It is herein recognized that an open question exists as to whether thisserver ought to be resident at an industrial power consumer site (due tothe higher comfort of some consumers due to security concerns aboutsensitive data), or whether it ought to reside at the consumer'selectric power supplier such as ABC Power. The advantage of an offsiteweb server is that the power consumer does not have to be concerned withthe maintenance and support of additional new technologies in order tobenefit from these new applications and services.

Using the integrated information web server, an employee of the electricpower consumer such as, for example, the afore-mentioned Chief Engineerat XYZ Company logs in to the customer portal site of ABC Power andrequests the daily course specials for tomorrow. Then, softwareaccessible using the web server is used to calculate the electric powercost of executing the proposed production schedule for each of the dailycourse specials.

Also reported are any scheduled production steps that may not becompleted (and the affected orders) due to any limits on electric powerdemand load given in a daily course.

Given this information, the consumer production engineer decides whichdaily course special is the best choice for tomorrow, and possibly makesadjustments to tomorrow's production schedule. Lastly, the productionengineer places a reservation for the chosen daily course special withthe electric power supplier and awaits a confirmation.

Note that a software package that can estimate the electricity cost ofthe schedules it constructs can be built from a conventional finitecapacity scheduler software package and post-processor software thatcomputes the electricity cost of carrying out the schedule constructedby the finite capacity scheduler. This sort of software package is shownin FIG. 5.

In FIG. 5, the Finite Capacity Scheduler is shown having inputsincluding Available Inventory Levels; Orders; and Resource Capacities,and providing a Schedule output to Electricity Cost Calculator, Schedulebeing subject to a selective application of the step of Change ScheduleManually. The Electricity Cost Calculator receives further inputsincluding Historical Machine Operation Electricity Use Data and DailyCourse and provides outputs including Electricity Cost; Schedule Cost;and Schedule.

Inputs to the integrated software package include orders, availablecapacities for such resources as machines and people, availableinventory levels, historical data showing electric power needed toperform each type of operation on each machine, and a daily courseincluding a tariff for the electric power to be supplied. It is alsowithin the contemplation of an aspect of the invention to allow manualadjustments to be made to a schedule as well, before it is input to thecosting post-processor. Outputs include a production schedule, the costof electric power projected to be consumed, and the total cost ofcarrying out this particular production schedule.

The details of Case 1 from the Consumer View use case are depicted inthe message sequence chart shown in FIG. 6. In this case, it is assumedthat no changes are made to the production schedule in an effort toreduce the cost of electric power. One of the daily course specials ischosen only if it results in a reduction in cost and the productionschedule can be fulfilled in spite of any limits on electric powerdemand load specified in the daily course specials.

The lowest cost daily course special that still permits completion ofthe production schedule is chosen, as long as it is cheaper than thedefault tariff in effect.

In detail, FIG. 6 shows Pick Course CASE 1: Choose a Daily CourseSpecial Tariff ONLY IF doing so reduces the cost of electricity. Forthis Case, no changes to the production Schedule are made.

Interactions are shown between Consumer Production Engineer andElectricity Supplier, including Offer Daily Course Specials fortomorrow. Consumer Production Engineer acts to Select the subset S ofDaily Course Specials that allow completion of tomorrow's schedule andIf S Not Null, Selects the Daily course Special with Lowest Cost. Callit L.

Consumer Production Engineer queries Electricity Supplier: [CostOf(L)<CostOf (Default Tariff)?] then acts accordingly to Reserve LowestCost Daily Course Special L. Electricity Supplier Confirms.

These actions could be Pushed by supplier, or Pulled by consumer.Special Case is: Allow Consumer to calculate cost of actual consumptionduring any part time and period using historical data for an actualproduction schedule, and a set of daily courses, to compare what costswould have been.

The same software used to do these computations can be used to calculatewhat the cost of electric power would have been in any past historicaltime period for which historical production data and electric power usemeter data is available, using any of a set of daily course tariffs.

Note also that the availability of a set of daily course specials can bemade known to electric power consumers either by energy suppliers:

-   1. broadcasting that news via the World Wide Web to customers likely    to have an interest, or-   2. placing availability information on the supplier Web site, to    allow interested customers visiting that Web site to discover their    availability.

As has been stated, the first of these methods is called an informationpush, while second method depends on customers pulling the informationto get it.

The details of Case 2 from the Consumer View use case are depicted inthe message sequence chart shown in FIG. 7. In this case, it is assumeda large surplus of electric power, much greater than normal, results indaily course specials for tomorrow with very low rates being offered bythe electricity supplier.

It is therefore in the best interests of the electric power consumer toadjust their production schedule, if possible, to take as full advantageas possible of the low electricity rates.

In detail, FIG. 7 shows Pick Course CASE 2: Large Amount of ElectricityAvailable from Supplier at Special Low Rates. For this Case, changes tothe Production Schedule may be made.

Electricity Supplier Offers to Consumer Production Engineer Low CostDaily Course Specials for Tomorrow. Consumer Production Engineerquestions Consumer Maintenance Engineer Can Defer Maintenance toIncrease Capacity? Consumer Maintenance Engineer provides ConsumerProduction Engineer a Set D of Maintenance that can be Deferred.

Consumer Production Engineer and Consumer Salespeople interact: [If] [DNot Null OR Unused Capacity] Consumer Production Engineer asks Sales tooffer lower unit prices to Best Customers for early delivery or forincrease in size of current orders for Tomorrow and provides availablecapacity and unit production costs.

Consumer Salespeople provide Set C of changes to Current Orders.

If [C Not Null], Consumer Production Engineer adjusts ProductionSchedule. Consumer Production Engineer selects the subset S of DailyCourse Specials that allow completion of adjusted schedule for tomorrow.If [S Not Null?] Selects the Daily Course Special with Lowest Cost. Callit L. If [CostOf (L)<CostOf (Default Tariff)?] Reserve Lowest Cost DailyCourse Special L.

Electricity Supplier confirms to Consumer Production Engineer. Thescenario could be Pushed by Supplier, or Pulled by Consumer.

It is also contemplated in accordance with an aspect of the inventionthat it might be possible that maintenance tasks that were scheduled totake some resources out of service tomorrow, could be safely deferreduntil a later date. This would provide greater capacity. If anyscheduled maintenance cannot be deferred, perhaps there are orders thatmake better use of the available capacity tomorrow that could be swappedwith the orders that are now scheduled for production tomorrow.

As was previously stated, two ways to make use of any additionalavailable capacity are:

-   -   1) complete and deliver one or more orders earlier, or    -   2) negotiate an increase in order lot size at reduced unit        price.

The details of Case 3 from the Consumer View use case are depicted inthe message sequence chart shown in FIG. 8. In this case, we assume thatdemand for electric power is higher than expected. If no alternativesource of power is available then load shedding will be needed, toreduce demand.

In detail, FIG. 8 shows Pick Course CASE 3: Energy Shortage leads torequest for Load Shedding. Consumer Goal Minimize Disruption. Thisscenario can be used during planning to examine the extent of disruptiveeffects of a possible load shedding event.

This scenario is pushed by an Electricity Supplier who communicates to aConsumer Production Engineer that Load Shedding is Requested during timeT. The Consumer Production Engineer verifies whether an Alternate PowerSupply is available and if not, determines which non-critical resourcesN to shutdown. Criteria include scheduled maintenance in the near futurethat does not require significant power. The Consumer ProductionEngineer determines orders that could be affected by shutdown ofaffected non-critical resources N and provides Consumer Salespeople witha capacity reduction requirement and the capacity needed by each orderand requests Sales to find which orders can be deferred or split.Consumer Salespeople provide a Set of Order Changes C to the ConsumerProduction Engineer.

The Consumer Production Engineer uses C to Update Schedule (usingscheduling software) and calculates the load shed resulting from theschedule updates. If insufficient load is shed, the Consumer ProductionEngineer finds additional non-critical resources to power down; andre-schedules affected orders. [The Consumer Production Engineer asks theConsumer Maintenance Engineer whether there are any resources in Nneeding maintenance in near future that could be serviced during loadshedding at time T. The Consumer Maintenance Engineer provides S whichis a Subset of N to be Service d during load shedding at time T.

The Consumer Production Engineer updates the schedule to indicatemaintenance of S at time T during load shedding and confirms LoadShedding to the Electricity Supplier who acknowledges [receiving theload shedding confirmation from the Consumer Production Engineer].

A load shedding scenario can be examined at the time a number ofalternate daily courses are being considered. The goal is to determineduring planning, how much the production schedule and deliverycommitments might be affected should load shedding become necessary, foreach daily course that involves unfirm power supply reservations.

One way to reduce electric power demand load is to schedule maintenanceservice of non-critical equipment that does not need much electric powerduring servicing, for the time period when load must be shed. Perhapssuch maintenance service was already scheduled for some other timeperiod in the near future. Perhaps it can be rescheduled for the timeperiod when load must be shed, without major disruptions and withoutmajor waste of the residual life capacity of that equipment estimated toremain before maintenance service must be performed.

As a result of performing maintenance service earlier, some operationson one or more orders might be deferred. The sales representativesservicing the customers whose orders will be affected should be involvedin rescheduling decisions, if orders with firm delivery dates might bedelayed. Those customers should be consulted to discover if expecteddelays can be tolerated by the affected customers, or whether orders canbe split, such that a partial order with smaller lot size can bedelivered on the agreed delivery date, with the remaining part of theorder to follow at a later date to be agreed upon. As one possibility, alower per-unit price can be offered as an incentive. This additionalcost would be absorbed by the industrial electric power consumer. Orderswithout firm delivery dates can be postponed without consultingcustomers.

A simple production schedule might be adjusted as shown in FIG. 9, whichshows current Schedule items and a Proposed Revised Schedule for 3 days,by way of example.

If sufficient capacity could not be freed by rescheduling maintenanceservice planned for the near future, or sufficient customers with firmdelivery dates could not be convinced to accept later delivery of atleast a portion of their orders, then the applicable MaintenanceDepartment could be consulted to find alternative equipment that was notyet scheduled for maintenance service, but which could be servicedwithout major disruptions and without major waste of residual lifecapacity estimated to remain before maintenance service must beperformed.

When a set of equipment meeting these conditions is found, some set oforders would be affected by performing maintenance service during thetime period in which load shedding is to occur. As above, the customerswhose orders specify a firm delivery date should be consulted by theapplicable Sales Department to attempt to renegotiate those deliverydates to allow for an expected delay.

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the nextset of scenarios are all part of the Electric Power Supplier View usecase. In detail, FIG. 10 shows a supplier view use case diagramenumerating 4 sub-cases. Electricity Supplier, Electricity Exchange,Electricity Consumer, Electricity DisCo, GenCo, etc. are shown inrelation to the general Supply Power. Four sub-cases are enumerated inthe use case diagram shown in FIG. 10. The 4 sub-cases are: Supply PowerCASE 1: Surplus Power; Supply Power CASE 2: Power Shortage; Supply PowerCASE 3: Use Consumer Estimates; and Supply Power CASE 4: Use ActualConsumption. Each of these sub-cases is depicted in a separate messagesequence chart in FIGS. 11–14, following.

The message sequence chart shown in FIG. 11 depicts Supplier View Case 1in which a power surplus is found to exist. Due to a power surplus on anenergy exchange, the price of additional electric power is low. As aresult, suppliers can offer special low-cost daily courses.

FIG. 11 shows Supply Power CASE 1: Surplus Power Available. EnergyExchange Integrated Info Server indicates to Electricity Supplier thatElectricity Asking Prices are Low. This information can be pushed toelectricity suppliers or pulled by them as desired.

The Electricity Supplier decides what Specials to offer. The ElectricitySupplier makes Electricity Consumers a Daily Course Specials Offer toElectricity Consumers. Electricity Consumers communicate to ElectricitySupplier with Reservations for Specials. The Supplier computes totals,and communicates aBid on Power to the Energy Exchange Integrated InfoServer. The Electricity Supplier negotiates a price with the EnergyExchange Integrated Info Server and purchases at the agreed upon finalprice. The Energy Exchange Integrated Info Server confirms completion ofthe transaction. The Electricity supplier confirms the Availability ofSpecials to electricity consumers.

Supplier View Case 2 is depicted in the message sequence chart shown inFIG. 12, wherein a shortage of electric power due to under-generation,overuse of transmission line capacity, or overuse of electric powerlocally or elsewhere, leads to the need for load shedding. In theabsence of availability of additional electric power at reasonableprices on energy exchanges or elsewhere, electric power suppliers suchas ESCos can request any of their customers with unfirm contracts toshed electric power demand load, up to the maximum amount specified intheir contract.

In detail, FIG. 12 shows Supply Power CASE 2: Power Shortage. A GenCo orTransCo communicates a Power Shortage messaage to Electricity Supplierwho queries Electricity Asking Prices of Energy Exchange. EnergyExchange returns Current Asking Prices. Electricity Supplier findsCurrent Prices too High, calculates the amount of Load Shedding needed,decides the subset of customers from which to request load shedding, andcommunicates to these. Electricity Consumers decide how to implement theload shedding request and confirm to Electricity Supplier their intentand ability to comply with the request. Further details on this step areshown in FIG. 13. Electricity supplier confirms their ability to complyto GenCo or TransCo. In the event Electricity Supplier finds that theload shed exceeds the power shortage, Electricity Supplier offers theexcess for sale to Energy Exchange who bids for the excess. ElectricitySupplier then optionally accepts bids.

As hereinbefore mentioned in reference to an exemplary embodiment of theinvention, customers with firm reservations are guaranteed to receivethe full amount of the electric power specified in their contract nomatter what disruptions cause an electric power shortage to the electricpower supplier. Only those customers with unfirm contracts can have thelevel of electric power supplied to them cut by up to the amountspecified in their contracts.

Note that if more than the required load can be shed, the difference canbe offered for sale on an energy exchange. This could result in windfallprofits if the current supply of electric power being traded on theexchange is considerably less than the current demand for electricpower. This is likely to be the case when load shedding is required.

If consumers were willing to supply estimates of their electric powerrequirements for tomorrow, electric power suppliers could use thisinformation to reduce risk while serving consumers' needs better. Inreturn for this information, electric power consumers would get somebenefits such as a lower price for their electric power. This situationis depicted in Supplier View Case 3 shown in FIG. 13. In detail, FIG. 13shows Supply Power CASE 3: Electricity Supplier Uses Consumer Estimatesof Electricity Requirements to Reduce Risk. Electricity Consumer createsa Production Schedule, computes Estimated Electricity requirements andsends this to Electricity Supplier. Electricity Supplier computestotals, decides if there is a Need to Buy, if they Can Sell Surplus, orwill offer specials. If a Need is found, Electricity Supplier buys, orif a Large Surplus is found, Electricity Supplier sells from/to EnergyExchange who confirms the transactions. Electricity Supplier offersDaily Courses to Electricity Consumer, perhaps including Specials.Electricity Consumer optionally makes a reservation with ElectricitySupplier who confirms.

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention, actualelectric power consumption data (metering data) is analyzed to discoverpatterns of use across such categories as geographical regions, industrytype, or ranges of amount of electric power used. Those organizationsdesiring this information could subscribe to a data service. Aggregateelectric power data from a set of consumers matching a desired patternspecified by each subscriber would then be sent. Who the individualconsumers are would never be revealed. These sorts of longer termanalyses are depicted in Supplier View Case 4 shown in FIG. 14.

In detail, FIG. 14 shows Supply Power CASE 4: Use Actual ElectricityConsumption Meter Data to Reduce Risk, increase Profit, and Develop NewEnergy Products

Electricity Consumers communicate Electric Meter Data to ElectricitySuppliers. Electricity Suppliers aggregate and analyze for patterns,then use patterns to reduce risk, increase profit, and to create newenergy products. Patterns could include geographical regions, industrytype, or ranges of amount of electricity used per day. Electricitysuppliers communicate data to members, DisCos, GenCos, etc. DisCos,GenCos, etc. subscribe to receive data for one or more niches fromElectricity Suppliers who then send Data or Analyses.

A number of special services are shown in the use case shown in FIG. 15.In detail, FIG. 15 shows a number of special Roles in this use caseinclude Electricity Consumer, Electricity DisCo, Genco, Etc., ConsumerElectric Meter, and Repair Person Provide Special Services such asDiagnostics, and Power Monitoring and Diagnostics.

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention, meters areused to supply diagnostic data. This information could be used to alertconsumers to problems and to schedule repair visits via the World WideWeb. A message sequence chart depicting a diagnostic scenario is shownin FIG. 16.

In detail, FIG. 16 shows Online Diagnostic Services. Consumer ElectricMeter sends an Error Message to Electricity DisCo who responds withOnline Diagnostics. Consumer Electric Meter sends Diagnostic Data toElectricity DisCo. Electricity DisCo arrives at a diagnosis and sends arepair request to Repair Person. Repair Person sends Electric Consumer aRequest for a Repair Visit. Repair Person and Electric Consumer schedulea repair visit and Repair Person visits to make repairs.

The online diagnostics are queries and tests sent automatically to asmart meter that performs them automatically and returns diagnostic dataabout its condition and health. A diagnosis is determined either by handor using a software diagnosis package. Repairs are then scheduled andcarried out.

The message sequence chart shown in FIG. 17 depicts the monitoring ofelectric power use and the notification of a consumer if there are anydeviations from their expected power consumption. In accordance with anexemplary embodiment of the invention, warnings about anomalies areoptionally sent via email. This can arrive at an ordinary desktopcomputer, a palmtop device, a smart phone, or a pager. Unusual power usepatterns could be an indication of a problem with one or more pieces ofequipment, simply a need to adjust machine settings, or an indicationthat schedules might be revised. Subsequent adjustments or maintenanceservice can result in savings for electric power consumers.

In detail, FIG. 17 shows Electric Power Monitoring with Notification ofAnomalies. Consumer Electric Meter provides Monitoring Data toElectricity DisCo who monitors for and analyzes Deviations or otherAnomalies in Power Use Pattern. In such an event, Electricity DisCosends Online Diagnostics to Consumer Electric Meter and receives backDiagnostic Data and arrives at a diagnosis. If the Meter is functioningproperly, Electricity DisCo sends a Notification with analysis toElectricity Consumer. If the Meter is not functioning properly,Electricity DisCo sends Repair Request to Repair Person who schedules arepair visit and visits Electricity Consumer to Make Repairs.

Following is a set of fictitious illustrative scenarios covering varioussituations and approaches to problem solution and optimization ofresources. The scenarios are illustrative and will be helpful in gaininga more thorough understanding and developing a clearer picture ofadditional aspects of the invention.

As has been explained above, close coordination across enterprises ismost important in attaining the goals discusses above. In one aspect ofthe invention, a goal is to support close coordination between energysuppliers and customers through information sharing and integration soas to:

-   -   enable energy customers to easily optimize their total operating        costs, including rapidly fluctuating costs of energy;    -   improve the ability of energy suppliers and customers to        optimize their operations in the presence of fluctuating price        and supply of energy; and    -   allow energy costs to be optimized across the entire energy        supply chain.

A better economic model for the entire system is one in which the energydemand of enterprises is elastic. If an enterprise has elastic demand,it can take advantage of rapidly changing energy prices by flexiblyadjusting its energy consumption. A business that can do this can runmore profitably than one with inelastic demand, all other things beingequal. If enterprise-level elastic demand becomes common in aderegulated market, most enterprises will eventually need to have it, inorder to stay competitive.

An object of the present invention is to focus on providing thetechnical foundations for this scenario.

FIG. 18 is helpful to understanding information sharing across an energysupply chain, showing the concepts of:

-   Vision: Encourage the sharing of data between enterprises-   Goal: Global optimization of the entire energy supply chain to the    benefit of all, with initial focus on coordination between suppliers    and-   Technology: Information exchange between different application    domains and between supply chain partners,    -   Global access to desired information, and    -   New and improved applications

To the left in FIG. 18 is the energy supply chain. In accordance withanother aspect of the present invention is to use cross enterpriseinformation to help globally optimize the cost and risk to eachenterprise in this chain. One key to this is making the relevantinformation available where and when needed and in the correct form.

It is herein recognized that the following Digital Plant Core Conceptsneed to be addressed and taken into account:

How can a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) allow people in differentroles to cooperate to optimize profitability:

-   -   Without anyone suffering information overload?    -   In a cost-effective way?

How can energy customers and suppliers co-operate to improve theprofitability of both?

With regard to each of the foregoing points:

-   1. It is recognized that optimizing profitability is not a facile or    simple task. Plant managers have generally indicate d that it would    be very helpful to find ways to help decrease their infrastructure    costs. They don't have any extra time, personnel, or money to spend    on installing and maintaining software and networks. It is therefore    in accordance with another aspect of the present invention to    provide solutions that require less, not more, effort and money to    maintain infrastructure.-   2. A large-scale energy customer can leverage rapidly changing    energy rates for optimum profitability by using more energy when the    rates are low. But this must be factored in to the total cost of    production. In accordance with another [aspect of the present    invention, it is recognized that optimizing on a global scale    provides better results than the suboptimal results from attempting    to optimize only locally.-   3. Suppliers already use customer load profile data to increase    their profitability; however, in accordance with another aspect of    the present invention, , a method is provided for getting additional    data from customers that will help better predict near-term load and    to do it in a way that the customer will prefer.-   4. Energy customers and suppliers can co-operate to improve the    profitability of both by agreeing to share information and use the    shared information to optimize their processes. Information isn't    the primary product of either, but it's useful to both sides to    share, as will become more clear in the description of the present    invention.

FIG. 19 shows a possible pattern for ad-hoc information flow costs inlost efficiency, involving an Energy Supplier and a Production Engineer.

Typically, under prior art practice, the production engineer here hasonly the telephone and email to help him when he talks to his peers.He's going to lose too much time explaining to them what delivery hewants to change and by how much, which maintenance item he wants todefer, etc. So he's most likely not going to bother. As a result, theenterprise misses an opportunity to take advantage of the special rates.Production is more expensive than it needs to be.

Core concept 1 in the context of a Digital Plant Demo can be outlined asfollows, by way of example:

Leverage Portal Technology

-   -   Role-based views: marketing, production, maintenance, ESCOs,        etc., presented as portals        Leverage Extranet Technology    -   Trading partner portals for energy and other suppliers,        customers, etc.        -   XML-based automated negotiation technology    -   The Application Service Provider (ASP) business model reduces        the need for in[-]plant software expertise for software system        development and maintenance        Standardize Domain-Specific XML Framework(s) for Information        Exchange Between Enterprises    -   Public organizations that could be involved include the        Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information        Standards (OASIS), XML.ORG, IDEAlliance, BizTalk, other        standards organizations.

Proprietary standards are considered by some to no longer be anadvantage but rather to have now become a disadvantage.

Using XML technology, role-based portals can be built for either human(Web browser) or machine (raw document) use. The same information can beused in either way.

Comments from plant managers typically indicate that they don't want tospend a lot of time managing network and application infrastructure. TheApplication Service Provider (ASP) model can help. Using an ASP portalexposed on the enterprise's extranet, the software within the enterprisecan be maintained by an outside provider. The enterprise does not haveto hire as many software experts. Furthermore, since the ASP tends toconcentrate expertise, small and medium scale enterprises will likelyget better service than if they tried to hire their own experts.

FIG. 20 shows an example of a Role-Based Portal Concept with thecomponents of Energy Supplier, Application Service Provider, Sales,Production Engineer, and Maintenance Engineer, with the correspondingfields of Finance, Production, and Maintenance, accessible from bothExtranet, and Intranet sectors. This shows the beginnings of a layered,enterprise-wide architecture for information integration.

People with internal roles (marketer, production engineer, maintenanceengineer) will typically have their own internal Web portals, which theyuse to interact with each other and with their individual parts of theenterprise. The portals would come preconfigured to support their roles.The role-players may customize the portals to adapt them to localprocedures and their own workstyles.

Through extranets, portals can also be extended to the enterprise'strading partners, such as energy suppliers and application serviceproviders.

FIG. 21 shows, by way of example, how a Role-Based Portal for aProduction Engineer might appear. In FIG. 21, production schedules arevisually integrated with graphical charts of production engineeringinformation (from many possible sources). Other role-players include:Comptroller, Sales, Maintenance manager, Customers (via extranet),Energy suppliers, and Other trading partners

Portals are preferably Web-based, so they can be accessed anywherewithin the enterprise intranet, including through wireless technology.The engineer would not be tied down to a particular PC. Using wirelesstechnology, engineers would be free to go to wherever thry arephysically needed.

The production engineer's portal has all the information which isrelevant to the job—and nothing else. The appearance of the maintenanceengineer's and marketing manager's portals would be quite different.But, unlike present technology, the role-players would not be requiredto learn how to use and interpret each others' portals in order tocooperate.

FIG. 22 shows an example for sharing data and messages. Here, theproduction engineers can view many different kinds of pre-integratedinformation or create their own integrations (similar to Excelspreadsheets. Using XML technology, messages are visually linked to theinfo they refer to—as they are displayed to the role-player, in his orher own portal.

Visual tools to create integrations are beginning to become availablenow. By way of example, not intended to be limiting in any way, see IBMAlphaworks' “Visual XML Transformation” tool. It lets users integrateXML document definitions (without programming, like an Excelspreadsheet), and creates XSLT transforms. This will allownon-programmers to implement and maintain business logic.

By way of further example, messages can be sent through email, throughthe Web's HTTP mechanism, or by any other convenient means. They includeXML Xpointers that refer to the underlying documents that are displayedin the portal.

The attached pop-up note shown in FIG. 10 a is just an example of howmessages might be visually linked to the graphic objects in a webbrowser. The actual appearance might be different, depending onimplementation issues.

FIG. 23 indicates that Role-players need help to put informationtogether. Even when the production person can explain everything to hispeers in a reasonable time, he still doesn't really know how much aschedule change will save on total production costs, or whether it mightget him in trouble later. Typically a decision might be made that it isbetter to do nothing than to do the wrong thing: in such a case, theenterprise may lose another opportunity.

Core concept 2 in the context of a Digital Plant Demo can be outlined asfollows, by way of example:

-   Integrate near-term production schedules with time-varying utility    and resource costs, including:    -   Past production schedules    -   “What if” production schedules for the near future    -   Historical data about usage of non-fixed-asset resources:        -   Electric power usage (metering data), raw materials,            personnel, air pollution, etc.    -   Time-varying price schedules for non-fixed-asset resources:        -   “Daily courses” for electricity, materials prices, labor            rates, pollution credits        -   Resource suppliers may offer several alternative price            schedules

A utility customer can select the production schedule and resource priceschedules that optimize the total cost of production.

When cost schedules vary greatly over time and don't track each other,enterprises need automated help in putting everything together into atotal cost of production.

Another key point is that energy demand is now inelastic, which causessituations like the afore-mentioned case of $7000 per megawatt hour.This is largely because enterprises cannot adjust their load accordingto price with current information technology. If enterprises canreliably predict energy consumption, and use that data to engineer theirproduction schedules, energy demand would become more elastic.

FIG. 24 shows, by way of example, steps for estimating energy usage:

-   Three XML base documents are referenced:    -   Past production schedules    -   Past load profile data    -   Daily courses-   They form four XML derived documents:    -   Estimated energy use for production    -   Estimated energy cost    -   Actual energy cost    -   Variance from the estimate

A key point here is the difference between base documents and deriveddocuments. These terms will be further considered in the description ofthe information integration architecture.

FIG. 25 shows information integration and base documents layers in anexemplary arrangement of parts in an exemplary embodiment, including theelements of:

-   Energy Supplier, Application Service Provider, Comptroller,    Production Engineer, and-   Maintenance Engineer, with respective components including (an    External network), Finance, Production, Maintenance, an Extranet, a    Firewall, and an Intranet.

In effect, FIG. 25 shows some parts of the intermediate layers of theinformation integration architecture. The derived documents are lightblue and the base documents are light green.

It is noted that the arrangement of parts in FIG. 25 is specific to theexemplary non-limiting embodiment being described and anotherimplementation or embodiment may result in different parts in adifferent arrangement.

FIG. 26 shows an example of the layered information integrationarchitecture as a whole—in a summary structural view. Components showninclude Extranet Portals, Role-Based Portal Layer, InformationIntegration Layer, Firewall, Base Document Layer, Extranet,Communication Layer, and Legacy Translation Layer.

Core concept 3 in the context of a Digital Plant Demo can be outlined asfollows, by way of example:

Information on Expected Utility Usage is Itself a Product

-   -   Customers can join “customer circles” and provide near-term        schedules of expected energy usage to their energy supplier (in        return for discounts)        -   (Appropriate privacy agreements typically should be in place            between the customer and the supplier)    -   Suppliers can use this data to schedule their purchases of        energy and transmission capacity more efficiently    -   Suppliers can also sell the expected data as an information        product to GenCos, DisCos, brokers, or other suppliers

The “Expected Usage” Information Product Can Be Bought, Sold, and TradedBetween Enterprises

For electric utility deregulation, this is an important idea. Utilityusage estimates for the near term can be gathered from enterprises andsold “up” or “across” the supply chain.

FIG. 27 shows an example of load history and forecast informationtrading, involving the elements of Heavy Industry Circle, TransportationCircle, Energy customers supplying load data and predictions and whereinan energy supplier assures customer privacy, by summarizing customercircle data, and information trading partners trade summarized customercircle data.

This is by way of example only—many other customer circles are possible:various manufacturing sectors, white-collar work, retail stores, andgovernment are a few. At minimal cost, many energy customers can enterinto agreements, which reduce their operating expenses. This will be apowerful incentive to join and provide information.

Customer circle energy usage estimates can be aggregated to each otherup the supply chain, too.

FIG. 28 shows an example of Method I for Customer Circle Based AggregateLoad Estimation, using historical meter data. This utilizes HistoricalLoad Profiles (up to last month) for components including hypotheticallynamed Aluminum Smelting Customer Circle, Pharmaceutical Customer Circle,XYZ Customer*Note that no XYZ Customer appears in the diagram, Pulp &Paper Customer Circle, as well as Variance and other Risk Parameters, asinputs to an ESCo Aggregate Load profile Estimator providing anAggregate Load Estimate as output.

In the past, power utilities used load profiles contained in historicalmeter data along with historical weather data to produce aggregate loadestimates.

FIG. 29 shows an example of Method 2 for Customer Circle Based AggregateLoad Estimation Using Historical and Near Term Actual Meter Data. TheKey indicates the lines used for Historical Load Profiles (before today)and Near Term Meter Data (today).

The diagram involves, by way of example, hypothetically owned AluminumSmelting Customer Circle Load Model, Pharmaceutical Customer Circle LoadModel, XYZ Customer*Note that no XYZ Customer appears in the diagram,Plastics Customer Circle Load Model, Pulp & Paper Customer Circle LoadModel.

Inputs from these entities and Variance and other Risk Parameters forAggregate and for each Customer Circle are inputted to an ESCo AggregateLoad Profile Estimator to provide an Aggregate Load Estimate as output.

More recently, the technology to remotely acquire meter data frequentlyhas become available. Aggregate load profile estimates can employ a loadmodel based on historical meter and weather data. Near term meter dataand current calendar day are inputs that enable the model to produce aload profile estimate as output.

A further refinement would allow the near future load profile estimatesprovided by individual power consuming customers to be used in additionto improve the accuracy of aggregate load profile estimates.”

FIG. 30 shows Customer Circle Based Aggregate Load Estimation for Method3: Using Historical and Near Term Actual Meter Data and Near Future LoadProfile Estimates, where customer circles provide inputs to an ESCoAggregate Load Profile Estimator which also receives Variance and otherRisk Parameters for Aggregate and for each Customer Circle to provide anAggregate Load Estimate.

Next, a series of short scenarios will be used to further illustrate howparts of this invention might be used in practice.

Scenario 1 involves adjusting the Production Schedule of an energyconsumer that is a customer of an energy supplier to take advantage ofspecial energy rates being offered by that energy supplier; in thisscenario, we look inside the business operations at XYZ Customer, ahypothetical manufacturing company which buys energy from ABC Power, ahypothetical ESCO.

FIG. 31 shows that at the ESCo there is a greater energy supply thanneeded. For example, this could become known by means of a message sentto ESCo staff filling a power load management role by an automaticmonitoring system. That message might contain information such as thefollowing, in accordance with the present exemplary scenario andembodiment:

-   “To: WXY Power Management-   From: System

Note the large surplus aggregate energy supply above the aggregateestimated load between 1 and 3 PM today.”

The Power Load Management Role has responsibility for:

-   -   monitoring the aggregate estimated load profile; and    -   deciding what action to take when estimated load does not        closely match supply;

-   Actions can include:    -   making special offers to consumers;    -   alerting the supply management desk to attempt to sell or buy        power; and    -   informing consumers of the need for load shedding.

In FIG. 32, the ESCo Offers a Special Tariff to Plastics CustomerCircle. For example, this could by a message such as the following, inaccordance with the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: Load Management-   From: Supply Management

Note the large surplus aggregate energy supply above the aggregateestimated load between 1 and 3 PM today. Due to the current low powermarket price, I suggest you offer a special tariff to some of your goodcustomers.”

Because the current market price of electric power is below the averagecost of the energy supplier's current power supply, the load managementspecialist decides to make a special offer to one or more of thecustomer circles being served by this ESCo.

As shown in FIG. 33, production engineer learns of a special on energy.For example, this could by a message such as the following, inaccordance with the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, XYZ Customer-   From: J. Doe, ABC Power

Due to a surplus power supply, ABC Power is offering an attractive ratefor unfirm power this afternoon to members of the Plastics CustomerCircle, shown in the table below. Please visit the ABC Power InformationPortal for details.”

We see here the production engineer's portal. ABC Power's offer to XYZCustomer is a business-to-business message in XML format. J. Smyth'smessage is attached to the daily course document via an Xpointer.

As shown in FIG. 34, Production Engineer Adjusts Schedule but aMaintenance Task Conflicts. For example, a message such as the followingcan follow, in accordance with the present exemplary scenario andembodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, production Engineering-   From: Scheduling system

WARNING

The Scheduled time of maintenance task WINCE4SP7 conflicts with theresource requirements of job PRODUAC99B24.

Its execution time cannot be changed automatically, because it islocked.”

FIG. 35 shows that production engineer comparing proposed schedules. Theproduction engineer realizes that the offer only makes sense for him ifhe can defer some maintenance tasks. He sends a message to themaintenance engineer, with a link to the task that needs to move. Themessage is linked to the schedule item in the base schedule document,and appears linked to the corresponding item in the maintenanceengineer's view

As shown in FIG. 36, Maintenance Engineer is asked to defer a task. Forexample, this could be communicated by a message such as the following,in accordance with the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: Maintenance-   From: J. Smith, Production Engineering

I'm trying to take advantage of some low power rates, but your scheduledexecution time of task WINCE4SP7 conflicts with a production job I wantto run on Production Line 1.

Could this maintenance task be deferred?”

Similarly, the maintenance engineer's reply refers to the schedule itemin the production engineer's view. This represents propagation ofinformation back to the coordinator who is still at the customer.

As shown in FIG. 37, production engineer gets the response. For example,this could be communicated by a message such as the following, inaccordance with the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, Production Engineering-   From: Maintenance

I've deferred the installation until tomorrow, but I can't slip itbeyond that. We need Service Patch 7 in place to fix problems withService Patch 6.”

Now the production engineer needs to check with Sales. Sales' view ofthe plant schedule is very condensed (or abstracted)—factory floordetails don't appear, but order entry, production, and delivery datesdo. Again, the production engineer sends a message that refers to thebase document. The message appears linked to the corresponding scheduleitem in the marketing manager's portal.

As shown in FIG. 38, sales department considers production engineer'squestion about early delivery. For example, this could be communicatedby a message such as the following, in accordance with the presentexemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: Sales-   From; J. Smith, Production

I can save some money on lower power rates by moving the completion dateof some production orders up by one day, or by making a bigger lot sizeof some production jobs already scheduled for tomorrow. Would either ofthese changes help one of your customers?

Also, could we revert to the original schedule in case we need to shedload?”

This, again, is an exemplary situation illustrative ofpossiblities—deliveries could be adjusted.

As shown in FIG. 39, sales department responds to production engineer.For example, this could be communicated by a message such as thefollowing, in accordance with the present exemplary scenario andembodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, Production-   From: Sales

One of my customers wanted JIT delivery, but is willing to acceptearlier delivery in return for a percentage of the price break we get onpower tomorrow. So I can move my delivery date up, and accept yourcontingency.”

Here, information flows back to the coordinator who is still at thepower consuming customer.

As shown in FIG. 40, ESCo's special is accepted and aggregate loadestimate increases. For example, this could be communicated by a messagesuch as the following, in accordance with the present exemplary scenarioand embodiment:

-   “To: J. Doe, ABC Power-   From: J. Smith, XYZ Customer

XYZ Customer will accept ABC Power's special offering for uniform energytomorrow. See the attached load profile estimate for more details.”

Information flow in this Figure is back to the Energy Supplier.

XYZ Customer's production engineer accepts ABC Power's offer. Enough ofABC Power's consumers have accepted the special offer to bring theestimated load profile acceptably close to the supply.

ABC Power's response message to XYZ Customer's production engineerreferences the estimated cost of power

As shown in FIG. 41, production engineer at the power consuming customersite receives acknowledgement of their acceptance of the special rateand updates their schedule. For example, this could be communicated by amessage such as the following, in accordance with the present exemplaryscenario and embodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, XYZ Customer-   From: J. Doe, ABC Power

Thank you for taking advantage of our special offer! We estimate thatyou have saved $10,237.93 (for example) over our regular rates.”

This represents feedback to the energy consuming customer.

Scenario 2: Responding to an Emergency:

For example, a hurricane has knocked out some transmission lines. ABCPower's power supplier asks for load shedding. If ABC Power can shedenough load, it might be able to avoid blacking anyone out. ABC Powermust impose load shedding on several or all of its customer circles.

ABC Power needs to shed Load. As shown in FIG. 42, for example, thisneed could be communicated by message such as the following to its powercustomers, in accordance with the present exemplary scenario andembodiment:

-   “To: J. Doe, ABC Power-   From: ABC Power & Light

Due to the effects of the hurricane, you must bring your power loadbelow 20 Megawatts.

Our apologies for the disruption.”

ABC Power tries to give its customers the option of running at reducedpower, to avoid a worse situation. It sends each customer a message,which includes a target consumption limit. By prior contract, XYZCustomer has agreed to reduce its consumption to that limit in case ofan emergency. The limit is integrated with the estimated usage in theproduction engineer's portal, and is shown as a dashed red line.

As shown in FIG. 43, ABC Power needs to shed load which, in thisexemplary embodiment and scenario, leads to a request by ABC Power forXYZ Customer to shed load. For example, this could be communicated by amessage such as the following, in accordance with the present exemplaryscenario and embodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, XYZ Customer-   From: J. Doe, ABC Power    Load Shedding Alert

Hurricane Hydro has taken an unexpected course and damaged transmissioncapacity in Eastern Texas. We must therefore limit our industrial andcommercial load. To avoid surcharges and a possible blackout, pleaselimit power use to the maximum amount shown.

We regret the inconvenience.”

Production tries to get consumption down. They ask Sales to revert tothe older, low-power schedule.

As shown in FIG. 44, Production Engineer Asks Sales Department AboutDelaying Order Delivery. For example, this could communicated by amessage such as the following, in accordance with the present exemplaryscenario and embodiment:

-   “To: Sales-   From: J. Smith, Production

We regret that our power supplier is having problems today. Will yourcustomer accept a delayed delivery or accept only a portion of theirorder now?

If so, how long could they wait for the remainder?”

However, this doesn't help enough. XYZ Customer has to reduce its powerconsumption even more.

As shown in FIG. 45, changes to delivery schedule by sales are notenough . . . XYZ Customer Still Needs to Shed More Load. For example,this could be communicated by a message such as the following, inaccordance with the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, Production-   From: Sales

I've checked with my customer. Delaying delivery is acceptable to them.

The customer wanted to get the price break unconditionally, but Inegotiated an agreement whereby they get a discount only if we do. Sofeel free to delay production.”

For example, Production has another idea—defer equipment tests requiringsignificant power, and move some more service tasks with small powerneeds up to today.

As shown in FIG. 46, production engineer asks maintenance engineer toreschedule a task. For example, this could be communicated by a messageletter such as the following, in accordance with the present exemplaryscenario and embodiment:

-   “To: Maintenance-   From: J. Smith, Production Engineering

Sales was able to delay several deliveries, but we still need to shedmore load. Can you delay any machine tests requiring full power, andperform activities with small power requirements for the remainder oftoday instead?”

Maintenance agrees.

As shown in FIG. 47, information integration provides the solution. Forexample, the reply from Maintenance” could be communicated by a messagesuch as the following, in accordance with the present exemplary scenarioand embodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, production-   From: Maintenance

No problem. I can delay several tests, and install a software patch onProduction Line 2 instead.”

With that done, note that XYZ Customer's estimated power consumption isbelow the limit that ABC Power needs. The crisis eases.

In this exemplary embodiment and scenario, ABC Power customers have shedenough load to bring their (estimated) aggregate load profile below thelimit.”

As shown in FIG. 48, the projected load shedding results at ABC powercould be communicated by a message such as the following, in accordancewith the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: Power & Light Company-   From: J. Doe, ABC Power

We project that we will be able to bring our power load below yoursupply “red line.

Scenario 3: Adapting Energy Use Estimating for the Business Process.

XYZ Customer has underestimated its usage. It is losing more moneythrough penalties than it's saving through rate specials. Thecomptroller sends the production engineer a message.

As shown in FIG. 49, Underestimation Causes Penalty Charges. Forexample, this could be the subject of a message such as the following,in accordance with the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: J. Smith, production-   From: Comptroller

Note the power penalty charges. Please improve your estimates.”

Production makes a temporary fix. However, he wants to correct theproblem permanently. XYZ Customer has outsourced software maintenance toan application service provider (ASP), which is responsible forcorrecting the business logic used in energy cost estimation

As shown in FIG. 50, production engineer uses power uncertaintyinformation. For example, this could be by a message such as thefollowing, in accordance with present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: Comptroller-   From: J. Smith, Production

I've increased the expected error for now. As a permanent solution, Isuggest we ask our Application Service provider to change the estimatorso the penalties are incorporated into the estimated production cost.”

Scenario 4: Better ESCo Side Load Estimates

As shown in FIG. 51, underestimation incurs frequent penalties. Forexample, this could be the subject of a message such as the following,in accordance with the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: J. Doe, Load Management-   From: Comptroller

The Plastics Customer Circle load exceeds their contract limit quirefrequently. Can you improve the load estimates so this does not impactus so often?”

Here the aggregate actual load for the Plastics Customer Circle wasabove the contracted limit for a considerable period of time asindicated by historical data.

By adjusting the error bounds to a larger interval, the energy suppliercan provide themselves with an extra margin of supply. In the longerterm, analysts can try to adjust the model for the Plastics CustomerCircle to make it more accurate.

As shown in FIG. 52, recomputed error bounds provide reduced risk. Forexample, this could be[ ]the subject of a message such as the following,in accordance with the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: Comptroller-   From: J. Doe, Load Management

I've recalculated the error bounds for the Plastics Circle. We shouldprobably change the estimator to do this automatically at regular timeintervals.”

A special software component called a Customer Circle Manager makesdecisions about individual customer members of a customer circle whilekeeping the load profile data and estimates of each consumerorganization confidential.

FIG. 53 shows a high level view of the inputs to and outputs from theCustomer Circle Manager Software.

Inputs include:

-   Special Offers for this Customer Circle;-   Warnings for this Customer Circle;-   Historical Load Profiles;-   Near Term Meter Data;-   Near Future Load Estimates;-   Add Customer;-   Delete Customer; and-   Update Customer.

Outputs to individual customers include:

-   Tariffs;-   Special Offers; and-   Warnings.    Scenario 6: ESCo Supply Side Management

Power Supply managers might use a role-based portal screen that lookslike that shown in FIG. 54.

FIG. 54 shows an ESCo Power Supply Management Portal. For example, thiscould be[ ]the subject of a letter such as the following, in accordancewith the present exemplary scenario and embodiment:

-   “To: WXY Supply Management Desk-   From: System

Note the large surplus aggregate energy supply above the aggregateestimated load for tomorrow, Nov. 10, 2000.”

Load managers contact supply managers when they determine that they needassistance in adjusting the power supply.

Note the surplus supply and the fact that the average cost of thissupply is considerably below the current market price.

Supply managers also monitor market prices and supply levels and maymake suggestions to load managers.

Automated Energy Trading.

XML-based automated negotiation is useful in accordance with certainaspects of the invention. In the case of fully automated trading by asmall-to-medium scale enterprise (SME), automated energy trading givesSMEs a chance to use the energy markets to decrease their own operatingcosts. An SME's goal is to optimize the cost of meeting a givenschedule. This is practical for customers who don't have attention tospare for energy trading.

The ICE XML framework is one example of an automated negotiationprotocol that might be applied for this purpose. The ICE (Informationand Content Exchange) XML framework includes an automated negotiationprotocol. Although ICE is primarily intended to be used to buy and sellelectronic content, the negotiation protocol can be used separately forany purpose. The authors of the ICE standard claim that the protocol issurprisingly robust and can accommodate many different business models.

Other XML-based business negotiation protocols which may exist may beapplicable in the context of the present invention.

FIG. 55 shows a Message Sequence Chart (MSC) for an Automated EnergyTrading Scenario in the standard Unified Modeling Language (UML). Eachvertical line represents a role-player. Messages are passed betweenrole-players.

This scenario represents a straightforward transaction, in which anagent software program is allowed to handle a transaction without humanintervention.

This scenario is called “Pick Course CASE 1: Choose a Daily CourseSpecial Tariff ONLY IF doing so reduces—the cost of electricity.”Forthis Case, no changes to the Production Schedule are made.

The role-players and interactions include:

-   Electricity Supplier offers daily course specials for tomorrow to    Consumer Production Engineer's Agent. Electricity supplier [Replace    “Electricity supplier” with “Daily course specials for tomorrow”]    could be pushed by supplier, or pulled by consumer.-   Consumer Production Engineer's Agent selects the subset S of Daily    Course Specials that allow completion of tomorrow's schedule;-   If S is Not Null Consumer Production Engineer's Agent Selects the    daily course special with lowest cost. Call it L.

Consumer Production Engineer's Agent asks Electricity supplier andrequests:

-   If CostOf(L)<CostOf(Default Tariff)? Reserve Lowest Cost Daily    Course Special L.

Electricity Supplier replies to Consumer Production Engineer's Agent toConfirm the reservaton, if any, when the requested conditions have beenmet.

Special Case: Allow Consumer to calculate the cost of actual consumptionduring any past time period using historical data for an actualproduction schedule, and a set of daily courses, to compare what costswould have been.

FIG. 56 shows a Message Sequence Chart (MSC) taking one step up thesupply chain and adding the energy exchange to the scenario, wherein theenergy supplier uses customer load estimates to reduce its risk

FIG. 57 shows a scenario in the context of online diagnostic serviceswhich shows message passing after a meter has sent an error message tothe DisCo

FIG. 58 shows a scenario in the context of online diagnostic servicesshowing monitoring with anomaly diagnosis and notification to acustomer. In this scenario, there is no error message. Rather, the DisCodeduces the problem from anomalous behavior of the metering data.

It will be understood that the present invention is preferablyimplemented using programmable digital computers and/or special purposededicated computers, as may be convenient and appropriate. It iscontemplated that such a system may make use of electronic informationexchange, optionally including communications on the Internet, WorldWide Web, e-Business networks, intranets, wireless nets, local areanetworks, and similar facilities.

The technology available for implementation is extensive and mayinclude, without limitation any of:

-   Web technology: Portals, VPNs and extranets, messaging technology    (MAPI, CDF) XML family technologies and standards such as    -   NERC defined XML schemas for the electric power industry    -   EDI standards in the energy domain: XML/ED1, X12/XML, EDI 867,        etc.    -   SWAP, NIST, PIF-XML workflow and process schemas    -   Commerce schemas: BizTalk, ICE, ecXML, OTP, etc.

Handhelds, palmtops, and wireless (mostly for plant floor control): WMLwherein:

-   CDF=Channel Definition Format—an XML—based push technology-   cXML=Commerce XML-   ecXML=Electronic Commerce XML (UN/CEFACT initiative)-   MAPI=Mail API-   NERC=National Energy Research Council-   OTP=Open Trading Protocol-   SWAP=Simple Workflow Access Protocol-   WAP=Wireless Application Protocol-   WML=Wireless Markup Language (both XML and WAP)-   XML=eXtensible Markup Language

White the invention has been described and illustrated by way ofexemplary embodiments, such examples and embodiments are not intended tobe limiting of the scope of the invention but are intended to be helpfulto gaining a fuller understanding of the nature and operation of theinvention. As one of skill in the art to which the invention pertainswill understand, various changes and modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. For example, while theexemplary embodiments relate primarily to electrical supply utilitiesand consumers, the invention is applicable to any parallel situationwherein the commodity is a water supply, fuel gas supply, or the likeand the invention should so be understood to be applicable to suchutilities.

1. A business management system with interaction between an electricalenergy supplier and a plurality of customer energy consumers havingrespective electrical load units which consume electrical power whileproducing goods according to production schedules, said systemcomprising: a Web site operated by said electrical energy supplier forproviding information to customers about daily courses of energy supplyreliabilities and energy prices offered for the morrow through acustomer portal site; Web browser means available to respective ones ofsaid customer energy consumers for accessing said customer portal site;computer means for generating a set of lowest cost goods productionschedules for one or more of said daily courses, taking intoconsideration historical electricity use data by each of said electricalload units, inventory information corresponding to materials needed toproduce the goods, and a list of said customer energy consumers' pendingorders for goods to be produced; and means for comparing said schedulesand presenting information thereon on said Web browser to an operatorfor enabling a goods production scheduling judgment based selection of adesirable schedule.
 2. A business management system with interactionbetween an electrical energy supplier and a plurality of customer energyconsumers having respective electrical load units which consumeelectrical power while in a productive mode of operation for producinggoods according to production schedules and whereof a subset requiresmaintenance with varying degrees of urgency, said system comprising: aWeb site operated by said electrical energy supplier for providinginformation to customers about daily courses of energy supplyreliabilities and energy prices offered for the morrow through acustomer portal site; Web browser means available to respective ones ofsaid customer energy consumers for accessing said customer portal site;computer means for generating a set of lowest cost goods productionschedules for one or more of said daily courses, taking intoconsideration historical electricity use data by each of said electricalload units, inventory information corresponding to materials needed toproduce the goods, and a list of said customer energy consumers' pendingorders for goods to be produced; and means for comparing said schedulesand presenting information thereon on said Web browser to an operatorfor enabling a goods production scheduling judgment based selection of adesirable schedule and, in the event that a low cost power is availablefrom said electrical energy supplier, selectively postponing maintenanceon electrical load units subject to said degree of urgency so as toallow selected ones of said electrical load units to operate in saidproductive mode of operation while said low cost power continues to beavailable.
 3. A business management system with interaction between autility supplier, said utility comprising any of electricity, watersupply, and fuel gas, and a plurality of customer utility usageconsumers having respective utility usage load units which consume fromsaid utility while in a productive mode of operation for producing goodsaccording to production schedules and whereof a subset requiresmaintenance with varying degrees of urgency, said system comprising: aWeb site operated by said utility supplier for providing information tocustomers about daily courses of energy supply reliabilities and energyprices offered for the morrow through a customer portal site; Webbrowser means available to respective ones of said customer utilityconsumers for accessing said customer portal site; computer means forgenerating a set of lowest cost goods production schedules for one ormore of said daily courses, taking into consideration historical utilityusage data by each of said utility usage load units, inventoryinformation corresponding to materials needed to produce the goods, anda list of said customer utility usage consumers' pending orders forgoods to be produced; and means for comparing said schedules andpresenting information thereon on said Web browser to an operator forenabling a goods production scheduling judgment based selection of adesirable schedule and, in the event that a low cost for said utility isavailable from said utility supplier, selectively postponing maintenanceon utility usage load units subject to said degree of urgency so as toallow selected ones of said utility usage load units to operate in saidproductive mode of operation while said low cost for said utilitycontinues to be available.